Description

This a great route on very good rock, with good pro on the harder sections, and some easier and spicier slab runouts. Definitely a step up from the Beckey Route in length and commitment, but not as committing as say, the NW Face of Liberty Bell. Also, note that you can add a long pitch below what I call P1. We just traversed in, but it is possible to climb up directly to the left-leaning white crack.

P1: climb the nice, wide, 5.8 left-leaning crack. Belay at the top of this crack at a tree. 5.8, ~80 feet.

P2: Continue up and left to a tree, then up and right to a belay below the Boving Roof and the West Face route to the left. 5.6, ~60 ft.

P3: Continue right and up to the base of the obvious dual offwidths, past some delicate, unprotected 5.6+ slab moves. ~100 ft.

P4: The bear hug pitch. Climb the very fun dual offwidth crack. From the top of the cracks, move up and right below a white wall into a corner and belay. 5.7+, ~80 ft.

P5: clip a bolt, then climb easy slab (5.5 or so) to the arete. Continue following the slabby arete with no pro, and belay at the 'Rabbit Ears,' two bouldery towers with rappel slings. Watch rope drag. ~165 ft.

P6: Either rappel or downclimb into the gully, then climb up from the gully on easy crack systems to the summit blocks. 5.5, ~80 ft. Watch your rope line here if you combine the downclimb with the cracks to the summit. I remember doing this as a short downclimb pitch, then a short pitch to the summit.

Location

The route is located on the south/west side of the WA Pass group, on the west face of South Early Winter Spire. Hike from the Blue Lake TH for ~1.25 miles until you reach a clearing. From here, follow climber trails (step lightly and around the fragile alpine meadows) to the far right side of the face, underneath the SW Couloir.

From here, scramble up the couloir past the giant chockstone. Continue up about 50 feet until you can find a decent spot to traverse left across some ledges and through some trees on the face. I remember doing a short 20 foot rappel to get to the beginning of the 5.8 left-leaning crack.

Descend the South Arete route with some class 3/4 down climbing and a couple of rappels.

Protection

1 60m rope. 1 set of stoppers, 1 set of cams to #3 camalot, with doubles in the 1" to 2" range for extra comfort, though it's not really needed. Also bring a large cam (approx. new #5 camalot size) for the Bear Hug pitch.

+1 to Blake's first suggestion for P1. Fun, steep, well-protected 5.8. With a few longer runners, you can link the 5.6 slab with the 5.7 bearhug pitch (which protects well with a single #5 Camalot). After the next slabby pitch, simulclimb toward the rabbit ears, but move down and left around them on a ledge (one bit of exposure, easily protected). You will reach the notch this way without rappel shenanigans. Then it's a short 5.4 wide crack to the top.

A big avalanche path now obliterates the trail at the second switchback. Hike straight up when you meet it until below the slabby cliffs, then pass them on the right.

Using the route description from Supertopo, if you opt to do the easy 5.5 variation on P3, you can link P3 and P4. P4 is really short. Just don't clip into the tree that's used for a belay at top of P3, otherwise there's a lot of drag.

Really fun route, highly recommend it. On the final pitch a 70m did not reach the rabbit ears with sparse and long slung placements, horrific drag. I had my partner simul the last 30 or so feet. Consider splitting this up with a belay off a tree or coil it down to say 40m and simul (climbing after the arete part of the slab is low angle and quite easy). I would recommend downclimbing in to the gully over rapping off the rabbit ears.